Planned Parenthood: Undercover videos not deterring corporate donors

Since mid July, Planned Parenthood has been engulfed in controversy as an anti-abortion group has released four undercover videos of Planned Parenthood officials. The Center for Medical Progress says the videos show that Planned Parenthood is selling fetal body parts, which is against the law. Planned Parenthood says the videos are heavily-edited and “part of a decade-long pattern of illegal harassment.”

The question arises: How is the controversy impacting Planned Parenthood’s corporate donors?

Some conservative and anti-abortion sites, including Fox News and the Heritage Foundation’s Signal, have claimed that corporate sponsors are distancing themselves. “Planned Parenthood once boasted a list of sponsors that read like a who’s who of the Fortune 100, but now some of the biggest companies say they never gave money to the embattled organization,” Fox News reported this week.

But Planned Parenthood says corporate donations aren’t down; Fortune reached out to a couple corporations and found that support for Planned Parenthood hadn’t change. On the contrary, the controversy seems to have solidified support from some and led to increased donations.

Corporate donors

A top corporate donor is Credo Mobile, a California mobile provider that also funds liberal causes with its revenue — including women’s health, rainforest conservation and hunger. The company told Fortune that it has given more since the controversy. Credo gave about $100,000 in July 2015. “Our support is stronger and stronger, instead of backing away,” said Heidi Hess, Credo’s campaign manager.

In all, it has donated $3 million to the group in the 30 years since the company was founded (as Working Assets, now a unit of Credo).

“Organizations and individuals committed to a cause often continue to support a nonprofit in the face of controversy — sometimes it can even rally the base,” said Steve Delfin, president and CEO of America’s Charities, a nonprofit focused on corporate giving.

According to Elizabeth Clark, the Director of Health Media at Planned Parenthood, the organization’s development office was not hearing from unhappy donors. If anything, the video controversy seems to be bringing in more donations, she said. They are arriving with notes from contributors, she said, saying the money is “in honor of” the Center for Medical Progress, the anti-abortion group that taped the sting videos, or is meant to fight Planned Parenthood’s critics, such as the Republican presidential candidates Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana.

Planned Parenthood said individuals and foundations are its biggest donors; some of the foundations belong to corporations.

According to public filings published by the Center for Responsive Politics, donors to Planned Parenthood’s lobbying arm include Andy Grove, former Dell CEO ($5,000), and individuals listed as employees of Twitter, Stanford University and Rockefeller Financial Services.

Clorox’s foundation arm reportedly contributed about $2,000 so far in 2015. Nike matches its employees’ contributions to the regional Planned Parenthood affiliate in Oregon, but didn’t specify the sum.

Other large and small businesses told Fortune they matched staff charitable giving, including to Planned Parenthood. Its network of 700 centers nationwide serve mostly women with lower incomes.

Employer matching-gift programs in which companies match employees’ giving are a minor source: less than 1% of funds raised, said Clark, a Planned Parenthood spokesperson.

Reports of donor flight

Fox News, as well as conservative outlets such as the Heritage Foundation’s The Daily Signal, said droves of major U.S. companies, including Xerox, Ford and Coca-Cola, had turned against Planned Parenthood because of the videos. The reports have said U.S. corporations were demanding Planned Parenthood remove their names from its website.

The companies’ names had appeared on a Planned Parenthood page asking supporters to use employer gift-matching to double their giving. It listed companies with gift-matching programs. Fortune saw the page before it was taken down, and it didn’t list the companies as donors.

Clark confirmed that Planned Parenthood took the page down because it was years out of date, and the companies erroneously listed as having matching program had asked them to remove their names. As The Daily Signal reported, representatives from some of these companies, including Coca-Cola, Ford and Xerox, contacted The Daily Signal to say they were erroneously listed and asked Planned Parenthood to take them off the site.

Xerox was named on this web page. A spokesman for the company said its position on Planned Parenthood hadn’t changed. Xerox doesn’t offer corporate matching to Planned Parenthood, a spokesperson said, “so we simply asked them to correct that error.”

Fortune called a few corporations and found no sign of corporate donor flight from Planned Parenthood:

Nike

Spokesperson Kate Meyers said Nike has no partnership with Planned Parenthood, but “through its Employee Matching Gift Program, Nike matches employee contributions to organizations, one of which is the Columbia Willamette Chapter of Planned Parenthood.”

Coca-Cola

The company was never a donor to Planned Parenthood, and that hasn’t changed. “We have not made any recent changes in our giving as it relates to Planned Parenthood,” said Coca-Cola spokesman Ben Sheidler. Its foundation and company give $140 million to philanthropies annually, including through matching employee gifts. Qualifying recipients must be in Coke’s priority areas: education, global water stewardship, nutrition, women’s entrepreneurship, and recycling. [

Cengage Learning

The $1.7 billion Boston education company with 5,500 on staff has “made no changes to our policy of matching employee charitable contributions,” said Josef Blumenfeld, Senior Vice-president of corporate affairs, “to Planned Parenthood and hundreds of other worthwhile organizations.”

Credo Mobile

The activist company polls customers about where to donate; in 2014, it gave $190,000 to Planned Parenthood. Over 30 years, it has donated $3 million to the group. “When Planned Parenthood gets attacked, we’re on the front edge of standing up for them,” said spokesman Heidi Hess.

Royce Leather

Accessory maker Royce Leather of Secaucus, NJ, matches contributions to Planned Parenthood, said managing director William Bauer, without providing specifics. “We don’t judge,” he said. “We are proud that our employees support and encourage civic organizations, from United Way to Planned Parenthood.”

Corporations have been swept up in abortion politics before. Activists have called for boycotts of Kohls and Mrs. Fields, as well as other companies that were Planned Parenthood donors — or believed to be donors. Darden Restaurants, Olive Garden’s parent company, had been a boycott target, though it was not actually a contributor.

Since mid-July when the first video was released, Planned Parenthood and abortion have moved to the center of presidential campaign and Congressional debates. The organization receives $528 million in federal funds, 40% of its budget. Republican Senators and presidential would-be candidates Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have promised to fight that funding. Congress has launched two investigations into its role in fetal tissue supply, and eight Republican governors (some running for president) have launched state investigations.

Researchers use fetal tissue, sometimes a source of fetal stem cells, to study transplant medicine, H.I.V., leukemia, Alzheimer’s, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Parkinson’s, and other diseases. According to The New York Times, last year the National Institutes of Healths pent $76 million on research using fetal tissue, in association with more than 50 universities including Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The White House on Thursday also expressed support for Planned Parenthood, saying the group behind the videos are “extremists on the right.”

Jill Hamburg Coplan is a journalist and frequent contributor to Fortune.

Twitter pulls Vine ad after criticism from an epilepsy charity

Twitter pulled a brightly flashing Vine ad from its website Friday after receiving complaints from an epilepsy charity.

Epilepsy Action said @TwitterUK’s new #DiscoverMusic campaign — which is designed to promote new artists and loops a six second clip of bright, flashing colors — was dangerous, as it could potentially produce seizures in people who have photo-sensitive epilepsy.

With 65 million people diagnosed worldwide, and Twitter’s extensive online presence, the ad represented a potentially serious problem. And “flashing bright lights or patterns” is a commonly reported trigger, according to the charity.

.@TwitterUK Your #DiscoverMusic Vines are massively dangerous to people with photosensitive epilepsy. Please take them offline now.

“Marketing communications should not include visual effects or techniques that are likely to adversely affect members of the public with photosensitive epilepsy,” Advertising Standards Authority told the BBC.

Here’s what Kofi Annan thinks about Bill Gates and the modern philanthropist

Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary-General from 1997 to 2006, took to LinkedIn to discuss his thoughts on the modern philanthropist. Its resurgence, he he said, “has been a major change for good,” especially the work of Bill Gates.

But how has this happened? “We have entered a new age of philanthropy and the sick, the poor and the vulnerable of our world are benefiting,” he wrote. “Progress is being made on some of our world’s most intractable problems and modern philanthropy has played a significant role in these successes.”

The philanthropists of today, he adds, are focused on being efficient and obtaining results. “They also bring a deep understanding of the need to build the widest possible partnerships with governments, international agencies, civil society and the private sector,” added Annan, who currently runs the Kofi Annan Foundation. “Despite fears from some NGOs and multilaterals about their involvement and influence, modern philanthropists rarely operate in isolation but recognise the importance of collaboration.”

Charitable giving is also becoming a global phenomenon and not controlled by individuals such as Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and Alfred Nobel. “As the economies of Asia, Latin America and Africa have grown, so has the determination of its business leaders to use their wealth for the greater good,” he said.

These community groups have a major beef with Walmart

According to a group of community organizations, WalmartWMT has been using its charitable arm, effectively, as a lobbying operation.

The groups filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service on Monday alleging that the Walmart Foundation breached its tax exempt status by using millions of dollars in charitable donations to help it expand into big cities such as New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles, among others.

The grievance, sent to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, contends that the retailer would pump more funds into markets where it sought to gain entry, theNew York Times said. That includes boosting its donations in Los Angeles to $1.4 million at a time when the company planned to open a store there. Once the store opened two years later, those donations plummeted back down to the $200,000 range where they stayed in the years preceding the company’s plan to open a store.

The same pattern can be seen in other cities, the complaint alleges. The foundation “appears to target its donations and influence its grantees primarily to assist Walmart to achieve those expansion goals, ultimately providing Walmart more than an incidental benefit. Walmart Foundation’s activities are impermissible under the Code,” the Washington Post reported, citing the document.

The retailer, however, argues otherwise.

“We provide support for these and other important causes in communities across the U.S. and around the world, not just to particular areas or cities, and it’s unfortunate to see criticism of the Foundation’s charitable giving,” said Tricia Moriarty, global responsibility communications director, in a statement, according to the paper. “The Walmart Foundation takes the Internal Revenue Code and regulations very seriously and the allegations made have no merit.”

Red Cross spent half a billion dollars to build six homes in Haiti

The American Red Cross raised more than half a billion dollars to bring relief to Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake there, but it grossly overstated what the money bought.

Although the organization claimed to have provided housing to more than 130,000 people, it actually only built six permanent homes, according to a report by ProPublica and NPR.

That year, the Red Cross kicked off a big project to revitalize the neighborhood of Campeche in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. However, it has yet to build any homes in the neighborhood, and its residents still live in shacks without access to clean water, electricity, and basic sanitation.

Much of the Red Cross’s failure stems from passing on the money to other groups with more expertise in building projects, which resulted in less of the funds reaching those in need, ProPublica found.

“Like many humanitarian organizations responding in Haiti, the American Red Cross met complications in relation to government coordination delays, disputes over land ownership, delays at Haitian customs, challenges finding qualified staff who were in short supply and high demand, and the cholera outbreak, among other challenges,” the Red Cross told ProPublica.

This is not the only case of the non-profit being challenged about its response to disasters. It received stinging criticism over its relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina and complaints about its spending of donations on internal expenses.

This is how much it costs to eat lunch with Warren Buffett

For a little more than $1 million, you too could dine with Warren Buffett. The annual auction of a “power lunch” with the Oracle of Omaha opened on Sunday night at $25,000, and the bidding is already up to $1,000,100.

The eBay auction benefits the Glide Foundation, a charitable organization that assists the poor and homeless, which Buffett has chosen to receive the proceeds of the lunch fundraiser each year. Bidding goes until Friday, June 5, at 10:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

Still, by the time the auction closes, the winning bidder—so far only four are in the race—will likely have to pay much more than $1 million to eat steak with Buffett.

Last year, a Singapore man, Andy Chua, paid $2.2 million for the lunch date, which is often held at the Smith & Wollensky restaurant in New York. The record price for the meal, however, was in 2012, when an anonymous winner paid nearly $3.5 million.

At the current pace of bidding, this year’s auction stands to beat the 2012 record. The bidding was only at $500,000 with two days to go before the close of the auction that year; the current auction has already double that amount and there are still more than four days left to bid.

After all, dining with Buffett has already yielded much more than bragging rights to at least one lucky winner. Ted Weschler outbid his competitors to win the Glide auction in both 2010 and 2011, paying more than $2.6 million each time. Then a hedge fund manager, Weschler spent the meals discussing his own investment strategy and success—and impressed Buffett so much that the Oracle hired Weschler to run part of his legendary investment portfolio at Berkshire Hathaway.

Zendesk’s new nonprofit aims to do more than just customer service

Technology companies want to show the world that there’s more to them than just profits, power, and killing the competition. Some also care about philanthropy and giving back to the little guys.

On Tuesday, customer-service specialist Zendesk unveiled a new nonprofit that it has funded with $1 million, which it plans to divvy out to charities working on social issues like poverty and homelessness.

The move comes amid criticism that tech companies and their wealthy executives have done too little to help areas where they do business despite their much-repeated goal of making the world a better place. Even Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff joined the bandwagon and called out businesses for being too stingy.

The Zendesk Neighbor Foundation can be viewed as an extension to Zendesk’s current charitable work in San Francisco that it does to qualify for city tax breaks for establishing an office in a gritty neighborhood. A cadre of tech companies including Twitter earn tax savings by showing they are helping to improve the local community.

Now Zendesk wants to expand its goodwill outside the Bay Area and show the world it’s not just thinking of itself. The new nonprofit will allow the company to invest in more nonprofits and community minded organizations across its ten offices scattered around the world, explained Tiffany Apczynski, Zendesk’s director of social responsibility who oversees the initiative.

Zendesk ZEN, which went public in 2014, does not receive tax breaks from the other cities where it maintains a presence, Apczynski said. Additionally, just because Zendesk now has a nonprofit organization doesn’t mean that the company is going to stop contributing to the current charitable initiatives in San Francisco.

“The foundation won’t fund any of the programming [Zendesk] funds to do the tax breaks,” Apczynski said.

On top of the initial foundation funding, Zendesk plans to continue contributing based on its sales. Every time a business signs up for one of Zendesk’s subscription plans or decides to upgrade an account, Zendesk will contribute $1 per month for one year per each employee a company pays to have access to Zendesk’s software for support.

San Francisco’s St. Anthony Foundation will receive the first handout of $100,000 from the Zendesk Neighbor Foundation. The social services agency plans to use the money to help with its program for teaching basic computer skills to people with low-incomes.

While Zendesk hopes the new nonprofit will help the troubled neighborhood, Apczynski acknowledged that the influx of high-tech companies in the area have displaced some long-time residents. Even with some people gaining new skills through training programs, many had to leave the city to find work where they could better afford to live, she said.

“That tends to be the double-edged sword of this,” Apczynski said.

Still, Zendesk’s aim is to do something better for the area. With a nonprofit that will operate locally as well as globally, Zendesk is hoping to continue contributing even after its tax savings with the city of San Francisco expires in 2017, explained Apczynski.

“This is a really nice way to have [corporate social responsibility] programming continue after the tax break,” she said.

Apczynski also talked about the benefits of giving in keeping employees motivated and feeling a sense of purpose beyond their daily jobs. While companies typically offer health-club memberships or take staff out for happy hours, she said that using charity as an office perk is a great way to keep employee morale high.

Having charity intertwined with business and having employees perform volunteer work as on top of that has given Zendesk’s staff “a thing to rally around,” Apczynski said.

3D printing company sets crazy world record

Airwolf 3D set a world record for running the most 3D printers at the same time, the company announced Thursday.

The 3D printer manufacturer had 159 of its machines working simultaneously at its California offices on Dec. 13, 2014, getting the company into the Guinness Book of World Records. The printers made over 200 prosthetic hands as part of a charity event.

“It was an amazing 24 hours of adrenaline and we were determined to make it happen, and so excited that we did it,” said Airwolf CEO Eva Wolf in a statement. “The best part is that we put our 3D printer farm to work for a good cause.”

The 3D printing industry is expected to grow to $16.2 billion by 2018, according to data from the research firm Canalys. The sector reportedly earned $2.5 billion around the world in 2013, increasing $3.8 billion last year.

Canalys said in December that 3D printer shipments rose 16% in the third quarter of 2014. In the U.S., 3D printer revenue grew 16%, making up 44% of the worldwide total.

How IHOP is using free pancakes to raise money

Breakfast chain IHOP is once again giving away free pancakes for National Pancake Day, which this year falls on Tuesday, March 3.

On Tuesday, IHOP customers will get a free stack of buttermilk pancakes from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., writes Consumerist. While the flapjacks are free, IHOP is encouraging customers to donate to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals or other charitable organizations in exchange for the breakfast offering.

IHOP has been giving away pancakes for nearly a decade. Its goal this year is to raise $3.5 million for charities. “Since beginning its National Pancake Day celebration in 2006, IHOP restaurants have raised almost $16 million to support charities in the communities in which they operate,” according to IHOP’s website.

IHOP’s U.S. same-store sales were up 3.9% for 2014 year-over-year, the chain’s best performance in 11 years.